World Bank Document

~~~DD(PJW EA2d "JJ~ ~VI! Y Vol. 1 Public Disclosure Authorized This report is restricted to use within the Bank. INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMEfNT Public Disclosure Authorized THE ECONOMY OF BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA Public Disclosure Authorized February 10, 1953 Public Disclosure Authorized Department Of Operations Europe, Africa and Australasia Table of Contents Page Part I British Central Africa 1. Introduction 1 2. Political Background (a) Constitution and government 4 (b) Native Policy and the movement towards cl.oser -union 3. Economic history 7 Part II 1. Northern Rhodesia 17 2. Southern Rhodesia 26 3. Nyasaland 31 4. Creditworthiness 34 Appendix on the Report of the Fiscal Commission PART I 1. Introduction British Central Africa is the term commonly applied to the three Brlish uenuencies of .outhern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Together they form a continuous bloc of territory in the heart of Southern Africa, extending from the Tropic of Capricorn in the south to within 1 0u of the equator in the north and xovering 476,000 square miles. The combined territories are thus about the same size as their neighbor to the south, the Union of South Africa, but they are more sparsely inhabited. 'The population in 1951 consisted of some 6 million Africans, 180,000 3uropeans and a few thousands each of Indians and Colored. The three territories are at present separate political and financial entities. Southern Rhodesia, in fact, has a different political status, being a self-governing colony while the two northern territories are protectorates. But they are in a number of ways interdependent. For example, the two Rhodesias are served by a common railway and they are both dependent on Nyasaland for an important part of their labor supply. More- over, the three governments and the government of the United Kingdom have under serious consideration a form of federation for the three territories. There are, therefore, grounds for treating the three economies as one. In this report Part I will be devoted to a survey of the more gAnerPl aspects that can conveniently be considered together, and Part II to the more individual financial and develooment auestions that muitlinevitably be considered separately. Under Federation, if it comes about, even these would be to a large extent merged. Most of Central Africa i. a plateau ranVinP bAwAen 'Ann anA 5,000 feet. The high mountain ranges which flank the Great Rift Valley rise above it in the east. at one noint. to In nonfe + * BIeo +he level of the plateau and separated from it by steep esearpments are the lower vallev of thA princinal pU and the shore Tofake VySa. climate is modified by the altitude. Temperatures on the plateau rarely rise mucih 0bve00* Th +~ sesni;n- ~---~-'t is followed by the rainy season of 3 to 4 months, between November and r-- Rn lis hUghest in the eastern mountains and it is only here that there is any appreciable rainfall during the dry season. The concentrated rains make for an irregular flow in the rivers. The largent of these is the Zambezi. which forms the border between the two Rhodesias and eventually flows into the Indian Ocean. Its watershed io Ao 1AvaA no the three territories together and largely coextensive with them. Into it run three large tributaries,the Kafue and the Luangwa in MNIthPhMA-igM and the qhire river in Nvasaland. The only other river basins of any size are the Chambezi-Luapula, part of the Congo Sysom in the north- and the qahi and the Limpopo. which flow indenendently into the Indian Ocean, in the southeast. During the high-water season after +he 4 +hontherive mravPlomy and flond thp flnt areas on the nlataau through which they pass. The flooded areas, which in Northern Rhodesia are ofI vast exte-nt,dgnrt int rwmp011T'on +Aln fI~nnAo vP,A rliirng the long dry season. Many smaller streams, in fact, dry up completely, so r1v+.~ 4-1,.-+ +1,~- -- es+0- Gie 'kW,4.,1,rM-a"Q1 .+~.a ilno tht the pltauityeonnl ve.rhg rsladmr rls covered with trees according to local soil and water conditions. Though useful timber. The soil, too, 'is poor over large areas. This deficiency, togetherl WiLth thel imoeUyL1UPVtatizU the concentrated an," uncerta-in, rainfall, limits the possibilities of agriculture. When the forerunners of British settlement came in the latter half of the l9th century, the country was very lihtly inhabited. The primitive agriculture practiced by the African militated against a dense population, for on the poorer soils it depended on burning trees every few years to fertilize the soil with wood ash and on shifting from patch to patch with the cycle of natural regeneration. The tsetse fly infested - and still infests - more than half of Northern Rhodesia and large areas in the other two territories, effectively preventing the keeping of cattle. Even in 1931 estimates of the population put it at only 4 million or 8 to the square mile. And this was many years after tribal warfare and the Arab slave trade to the East had been eradicated. Many Africans, moreover, had had the opportunity to work in places where better diet and medical care were provided; for subsistence agriculture often left the African with insufficient food to last the year and lowered his resistance to such tropical diseases as bilharzia and malaria. The opening up of Central Africa was very largely due to the initiative of two men and its development owes much to these two men and to the institutions that they left behind them. David Livingstone made his first expeditions in the 1850's and mission stations followed him many years before there was any organized government. The missionaries took the initiative in introducing new crops into Nyasaland such as tea and coffee and in promoting trading companies. But apart from their spiritual mission their greatest contributions were first in education and second in medical work. Almost solely because of their efforts could it be said of the poorest of the three territories before the last war that "there is in Nyasaland a higher percentage of literacy in the vernacular than in any othAr Britiqh DAnndancy in tronical Africa". C.,ecil Rliodme una a ining financ-ier andi a rhqrnnion nf rnhia tion. In 1889 he formed the British South Africa Company to take over minral-ocessiona ~ ~ ~ 1~lcifss er eoe h company received a Royal Charter under which it administered until 1923 what ere,nuallr kem h +ur nhA4 T-v.ment eias wna the building of the railway northward from South Africa and westward from L . 6 ,AP- -, f.4.-, P +,,w. 14 n ma, n 4n m n+- D.elorrown 4. 10() 1)rr W1 J t. A~'. Li .LL . 4.Lz VWJ 4. A.J j J .4J~ ' L'~W J '.' -- U ._?"* - 1909 the line had been continued north to the Belgian Congo border and WLJLI U11" rJx1jal %JtLloU LLIM~5, ULVa4..1CU ~JUL.L. I_C%._.CLbQj i anu established government administrations, another economy - the money economy - was created side by sLue w1u te ulU subsistluen economy witu profound effects upon the latter. Many Africans went to work in the money economy for short periods whenever they needed money to pay the head tax or buy cattle or pay a bride-price. Though the opportunity of work in the European economy is the greatest economic change in the lives or the Africans, the latter have also been drawn into the money economy in other ways. Some Africans have indeed become permanently urbanized. Others now grow more food than they need and sell the surplus or they grow cash crops in addition to their food. A few rely on cash crops exclusively. With the money they earn in this way, a minority are beginning to use ploughs and fertilizers and are improving their land. In the Native Reserves allotted to the Africans soonomic life has thus been modified greatly. In spite of the changes there are, however, many areas which can still be described - for want of a better term - as basically a subsistence economy. The money brought in from outside is only a small and uncertain accretion to their income. Indeed other problems have been added. The greater security from war, slavery, disease and famine have allowed the population to increase and more old people to survive. Some Reserves are now overcrowded and others are stripped of the able-bodied men who would support them. Geographically, the European economy is still small. Except for a. few enclaves elsewhere, it is a belt of mines, farms and towns along the great artery of the country, the railway. Economically, it is, of course, by far the more important of the two, for .in it is concentrated nearly all the taxable wealth needed to administer and develop the country. But, since the money economy is heavily dependent on producing commodities for export, it is vulnerable to fluctuations in the market. The vulnerability is aggravated by the cost of the long haul to the coast. In bad times, there would be severe unemployment among Africans if the safety valve of the subsistence economy were not available. For this reason, the governments have tended to discouraze the permanent urbanization of the African, at least until recently. And the attitude of European workers towardq any comnRtition from the Africans which threatens to lower their -4- 11YL.1115 OV0,1VACLUS 01. UUF11.VU tllaw 1 J OUS TILUWLIL-L' UP'LlUs tOI be- 111re restrictive whenever a depression makes this competition more acute. These two characteristics of Central Africa, the dual economy and the vulnerability of the money economy, are important to an understand- ing of its past and future development.

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